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Lister   on  the   Use   of   Animals  in   Research 


To  the  Editor: — The  following  letter  was  found  among 
Lord  Lister's  papers  by  his  nephew,  Sir  Rickman  J.  Godlee 
(ex-president  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  England), 
who  is  about  to  publish  the  authorized  Life  of  Lord  Lister. 
I  have  his  kind  permission  to  publish  the  letter.  It  is  a 
signed  holograph  letter  evidently  written  and  revised  with 
unusual  care,  for  there  are  many  changes  and  corrections  in 
it.  It  was  also  evidently  copied,  for  "a  line  is  drawn  over 
it  as  it  was  copied,"  as  Sir  Rickman  informs  me.  The 
envelope  is  endorsed  "Rough  draft  of  a  letter  to  Dr.  Keen." 
No  copy  of  the  letter  ever  reached  me.  Presumably  it  went 
astray  in  the  mail.  It  is  of  especial  interest  as  showing 
Lister's  deep  convictions  and  personal  experience. 

W.  W.  Keen,  M.D.,  Philadelphia. 

12    Park   Crescent,   Portland   Place,   London,   W. 

4    April    1898. 

My  dear  Sir: — I  am  grieved  to  learn  that  there  should  be  even  a 
remote  chance  of  the  legislature  of  any  state  in  the  Union  passing  a 
bill   for   regulating   experiments   upon   animals. 

It  is  only  comparatively  recently  in  the  world's  history  that  the  gross 
darkness  of  empiricism  has  given  place  to  more  and  more  scientific  prac- 
tice, and  this  result  has  been  mainly  due  to  experiments  upon  living 
animals.  It  was  to  these  that  Harvey  was  in  large  measure  indebted  for 
the  fundamental  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  the  great 
American  triumph  of  general  anesthesia  was  greatly  promoted  by 
them.  Advancing  knowledge  has  shown  more  and  more  that  the 
bodies  of  the  lower  animals  are  essentially  similar  to  our  own  in  their 
intimate  structure  and  functions,  so  that  lessons  learnt  from  them  may 
be  applied  to  human  pathology  and  treatment.  If  we  neglect  to  avail 
ourselves  of  this  means  of  acquiring  increased  acquaintance  with  the 
working  of  that  marvelously  complex  machine,  the  animal  body,  we 
must  either  be  content  to  remain  at  an  absolute  standstill,  or  return 
to  the  fearful  haphazard  ways  of  testing  new  remedies  upon  human 
patients    in    the    first    instance    which    prevailed    in    the    dark    ages. 

Never  was  there  a  time  when  the  advantages  that  may  accrue  to 
man  from  investigations  on  the  lower  animals  were  more  conspicuous 
than  now.  The  enormous  advances  that  have  been  made  in  our 
knowledge  of  the  nature  and  treatment  of  disease  of  late  years  have 
been   essentially  due  to   work  of  this  kind. 

The  importance  of  such  investigations  was  fully  recognized  by  the 
commissioners  on  whose  report  the  act  of  Parliament  regulating  experi- 
ments on  animals  in  this  country  was  passed,  their  object  in  recom- 
mending legislation   being  only   to   prevent   possible   abuse. 

In  reality,  as  one  of  the  commissioners,  the  late  Mr.  Erichsen, 
informed  me,  no  single  instance  of  such  abuse  having  occurred  in  the 
British  Islands  had  been  brought  before  them  at  the  time  when  I 
gave   my   evidence,   and   that   was   toward   the   close   of  their   sittings. 

Yet  in  obedience  to  a  popular  outcry,  the  government  of  the  day 
passed  an  act  which  went  much  further  than  the  recommendation  of 
the  commissioners.  They  had  advised  that  the  operation  of  the  law 
should    be    restricted    to    experiments    upon    warm-blooded    animals;    but 


when  the  bill  was  considered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  a  member 
who  was  greatly  respected  as  a  politician,  but  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
subject  matter,  suggested  that  "vertebrate"  should  be  substituted  for 
"warm-blooded,"  and  this  amendment  was  accepted  by  a  majority  as 
ignorant    as    himself. 

The  result  is  that,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  any  one  would  now 
be  liable  to  criminal  prosecution  in  this  country  who  should  observe  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  in  a  frog's  foot  under  the  microscope  without 
having  obtained  a  license  for  the  experiment  and  unless  he  performed 
it   in   a   specially   licensed   place. 

It  can  readily  be  understood  that  such  restrictions  must  seriously  inter- 
fere  with    legitimate   researches. 

Indeed,  for  the  private  practitioner  they  are  almost  prohibitive;  and 
no   one   can  tell   how   much   valuable  work  is   thus  prevented. 

My  own  first  investigations  of  any  importance  were  a  study  of  the 
process  of  inflammation  in  the  transparent  web  of  the  frog's  foot.  The 
experiments  were  very  numerous,  and  were  performed  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  at  my  own  house.  I  was  then  a  young  unknown  practitioner; 
and  if  the  present  law  had  been  in  existence,  it  might  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  me  to  obtain  the  requisite  licenses:  even  if  I  had  got  them 
it  would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to  have  gone  to  a  public  labora- 
tory to  work.  Yet  without  these  early  researches  which  the  existing 
law  would  have  prevented,  I  could  not  have  found  my  way  among  the 
perplexing  difficulties  which  beset  me  in  developing  the  antiseptic  system 
of    treatment    in    surgery. 

In  the  course  of  my  antiseptic  work,  at  a  later  period,  I  frequently 
had  recourse  to  experiments  on  animals.  One  of  these  occurs  to  me 
which  yielded  particularly  valuable  results  but  which  I  certainly  should 
not  have  done  if  the  present  law  had  been  in  force.  It  had  reference 
to  the  behavior  of  a  thread  composed  of  animal  tissue  applied  anti- 
septically  for  tying  an  arterial  trunk.  I  had  prepared  a  ligature  of  such 
material  at  a  house  where  I  was  spending  a  few  days  at  a  distance 
from  home;  and  it  occurred  to  me  to  test  it  upon  the  carotid  artery  of 
a  calf.  Acting  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  I  procured  the  needful 
animal  at  a  neighboring  market;  a  lay  friend  gave  chloroform,  and 
another  assisted  at  the  operation.  Four  weeks  later  the  calf  was  killed 
and  its  neck  was  sent  to  me.  On  my  dissecting  it,  the  beautiful  truth 
was  revealed  that  the  dead  material  of  the  thread,  instead  of  being 
thrown  off  by  suppuration,  had  been  replaced  under  the  new  aseptic 
conditions  by  a  firm  ring  of  living  fibrous  tissue,  the  old  dangers  of  such 
an   operation   being  completely   obviated. 

I  have  referred  thus  to  my  personal  experience  because  asked  to 
do  so;  and  these  examples  are  perhaps  sufficient  to  illustrate  the  impedi- 
ments which  the  existing  law  places  in  the  way  of  research  by  medical 
men  engaged  in  practice  whose  ideas,  if  developed,  would  often  he  the 
most   fruitful   in   beneficent   results. 

But  even  those  who  are  specialists  in  physiology  or  pathology  and 
have  ready  access  to  research  laboratories  find  their  work  seriously 
hampered  by  the  necessity  of  applying  for  licenses  for  all  investigations 
and   the   difficulty   and   delay   often   encountered   in  obtaining  them. 

Our  law   on  this  subject  should  never  have  been  passed  and  ought  to 
be   repealed.      It    serves   no   good   purpose    and    interferes   seriously   with 
enquiries  which   are   of   paramount   importance   to   mankind. 
Believe  me 

Sincerely  yours, 

Lister. 

Reprinted  from    The  Journal   of  the  American   Medical  Association 
Jan.   6,   1917,    Vol.   LXVIII,  p.  53 


Copyright,    1917 
American  Medical  Association,  535  N.  Dearborn  St.,  Chicago 


DUKE     MlO.     CENTER     LIB. 
"HISTORICAL    COLLECTION  j^  M£D    C£nj£r   ^ 


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